So why do I talk about the benefits of failure Simply
because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.
I stopped pretending to me that I was anything other than
21
what I was, and began to direct all my energy for finishing
22
the only work that mattered to me. Have I really succeeded
23
at anything else, I might never have found the determination
to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was
set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I
was still alive, and I yet had a daughter whom I adored, and
24
I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom
became the solid foundation which I rebuilt my life. You
25
might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is
inevitable. It is possible to live without failing at something,
26
unless you live so cautiously that you might as well as not
27
have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default. Failure
gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing
examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that
I could have learned any other way. I discovered that I had
28
a strong will and the more discipline than I had suspected;
29
I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly
above the price of rubies. The knowledge which you have
30
emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you
are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.